J. RODDY WALSTON AND THE BUSINESS

GRINGO STAR

J. RODDY WALSTON AND THE BUSINESS

J Roddy Walston and The Business refuse to play it safe. In this age when mobile phone apps have replaced recording studios and the term “badass” rarely describes modern music, J Roddy furthers the proud legacy of unrelenting rockers from Little Richard to Janis Joplin to KISS, shredding eardrums and stirring souls with scrappy, All-American anthems.

J Roddy Walston, diarist of the dispossessed, patron saint of the rough and tumble. His songs celebrate the more colorful parts of this and, that gritty slice ignored by polite society:

Places where the air hangs thick with cigarette smoke and desperation.

Where whiskey is a blood type and beer gets drank straight from the can.

Where everyone is working an angle.

Where a high school education means you’re no longer welcome.

Where trouble finds you.

Where they don’t even try to sell whitening toothpaste.

Some call it Johnny Cash country. This is J Roddy Walston’s America.

Raised in the gospel tradition in one of the lesser known Clevelands– Cleveland, Tennessee; a town renowned for the most churches per capita in the USA — J Roddy learned piano from his God-fearing grandma. But it soon became clear no church could contain his reckless spirit, threadbare vocal chords, and titanium fingers pounding chords with the force of ten jackhammers.

In another era, J Roddy would have laid waste nightly to the keys of the hottest honky-tonk saloon in any riverboat metropolis. Today J Roddy Walston & The Business rely not on computers but on forcefulness, volume, and tight musical command to shake entire city blocks.

“I just enjoy creating situations in which people can have fun and be accepted, and I think that our music has that common thread in it. People hear the first chorus and, by the second chorus, they’re singing along.”

So J Roddy moved east, settling in Baltimore where The Business was called to order in 2006. First came the challenge and compliment of guitarist Billy Gordon, a musical mirror-image of J Roddy. Next was Steve Colmus, a sportly southpaw with a heavy snare hand. And Logan Davis’s bass provided the pugnacity of a prize fighter’s sparring partner. J Roddy describes this harmonious merger as one in which “raw power met story and neither would compromise.” The result is an energetic, blue collar rock ethic the Baltimore City Paper once said “makes James Brown look lazy.”

Due to their breakneck tempos it is physically impossible to observe posted speed limits while listening to J Roddy Walston and TheBusiness.

If the Bible Belt had soccer hooligans, J Roddy would compose their hymns.

Imagine Animal the Muppet playing piano and you’re getting close.

Legions of “J-Rowdies” scattered throughout the Continental US eagerly await the arrival of Roddy Walston and The Business to the local roadhouse for a one-of-a-kind religious experience, one known for its redemptive atmosphere, melodies that all but dare women to keep their tops on, and adrenaline-fueled grooves which can even get the toes tapping on a tone deaf corpse.

Decades ago a crack team of cardiologists called Huey Lewis and The News confirmed the vitality of Rock & Roll’s ticker. Today J Roddy Walston and The Business not only reaffirm that diagnosis but offer conclusive proof Rock & Roll’s rollicking soul continues to thrive.

J Roddy Walston and The Business, advancing America’s quintessential rock tradition in this digital age…just when we need it the most.

GRINGO STAR

Boiling up from the independent musical cauldron Hotlanta has become, here comes Gringo Star with its follow up to 2008's critically acclaimed debut, "All Y'all. The band now comes into its own with "Count Yer Lucky Stars, " a collection of catchy and instantly classic pop music. You won't be able to stop humming this spate of new and bright tunes, music that lifts the spirit. In this Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley, Deerhunter) produced record, the surge of primordial forces that reveals itself through rock and roll only about every other generation has infected these multi-instrumentalists and the result is an upbeat album of raw energy and positivity. Live, if you can resist the urge to dance, you'll find your limbs shaking and your toes tapping to a band which has been described as "explosive," "electrifying," and "exceptional."

No need for the devices of the main stream musical glitterati who hide lifeless melodies and meaningless lyrics in stage productions and synchronized dancing meant to distract their wide eyed fans; here it's the music itself - honest and intense. The Gringos, brothers Nicholas and Pete Furgiuele, Pete DeLorenzo and Chris Kaufmann, play each show as if their lives depended on it, and it's that urgency combined with great song writing, pop beats and skilled harmonies that raise Gringo Star above the cacophonous crowd.

These four guys should be literally showered with the same kind of excited stammering and fawning heaped onto the stars of the early days of rock and roll, the musicians who were raging around the U.S., night after night, putting it all out there, playing their hearts out, singing until they were hoarse and soaked in sweat, letting the music do their talking. There were once musical movements in this country, but the fracturing and splintering of the music scene stopped new waves from forming and cresting. This is a band which is creating the new standards to usher in the next tsunami. If you have the chance to catch them in a small venue, you better do it while you still can.